#sonja asks and answers

[sonjalikestodraw]

The Smitongaz? The Smittoobs? The Smit Melons? The Smitreasts? The Smitten Pillows? The Smitty Titties? Big Smitty Titty Committee?

[s0laura]

As if ur not living rent-free in my mind 24/7. GIRL, we share the last working brain cell. Ur a part of my soul by this point, too. You're literally in my jammies at the moment. How could I not think of you 😔💖

making me cry on a monday night is crazy, i love you

[the-nocturnal-writer]

💗 GROWING HEART - if they have a crush, is it noticable? what changes when they're in love?

I could've sat there and wrote this forever, but losing one save has scared me into posting it, plus it's late pffft. They were a little longer but I've been trying to hold back from spoiling too much stuff lately (I'm terrible for it). Thank you for the question, Anon!!

-

Ashborn

Very noticeable. She is much less sporadic with her actions and words, being more careful with what they say and do since they tend to be impulsive without regard for others feelings, so when around someone they love, Ash will be more gentle with their words and appear way more enthralled in the conversation she has with them. It all in her eyes, Ashborn can’t hide how infatuated she is from the start. This is what makes them one of the healthier romance options.

Constantin

Constantin isn’t obvious, in the way he has no clue what he’s feeling, just a shocking realisation that they managed to make him feel pleasant in his desensitised state. The more notable things that change are the fact he becomes a little less tense and tries to speak more with them, makes an effort to seek them out just to continue feeling genuine happiness with them, and as much as he’ll hate to admit it, he immediately goes back to feeling a dull numbness when they’re not around… probably why he makes them a lot of bone trinkets. Overall, Constantin just gives off a more peaceful presence when around them. 

Crowley

He’s either going to be more loved or very hated with this one. At the first sign of him falling in love, Crow becomes a brick wall of emotions before bolting. He’s noticeable, in the sense he treats them like a giant asshole to push them away, nasty words, threatening to eat them, and being a pessimistic idiot to create distance. At the end of the day, Crow has to hope that’s enough, he needs love too much to avoid them forever.

Eden

Oh sweet snake lady, she’s so obvious when in love. Eden will be enthralled by them, constantly start up conversations only to fluster herself and duck behind whatever furniture is closest, recommend books they might enjoy or even randomly give them baked goodies, she won’t try to hide it, but she will be hesitant to admit it. Having Fern makes her want to confirm one thing before she acts on her feelings, and it’s making sure they understand being with her means watching over Fern. At the end of the day, Eden is a mother that puts her daughter before herself. 

Heka

Heka isn’t noticeable… sort of. Our dear devil is extremely well versed in hiding his thoughts and emotions, it’s easy when he’s a sweetheart to absolutely everybody. While it wouldn’t be completely clear just by looking at him, he would be one-hundred percent honest about it if asked. It’s not that Heka is trying to hide it, more hesitates to act on it. He needs a certain level of certainty before he’ll convince himself to open up a little, but when he does, Heka is more genuine and affectionate with them, if a little mischief. He does enjoy teasing his loved ones. 

Rowan

Rowan has perfected the craft of hiding their feelings, especially in matters of love, and if caught, they’ll deny it. The only sign of Rowan being in love, is how quick they are to contradict their own words. They say to stay away, yet seek them out themself. They’d say they like being alone, then run to find and hold their complete attention. They don’t make things easy for themself, desperately wanting to love but putting on a front that says otherwise.

Sonja

One of the tougher romance options, Sonja falls in love fast and hard, but she also keeps it to herself. She won’t make it obvious outside of longing stares, subconsciously seeking them out for conversation and to know they’re safe and sound. Even Sonja has a boiling point and when she reaches it, she’ll be screaming how much she loves them to the whole damn town. She has such a big heart and is so afraid to use it.

[ladylooch]

Bones - Part 4 [Mack x David]

A/N: *inhales and exhales heavily* Here we go.

I'm sorry...... & good luck. Would love it if you came to talk to me in my asks about this one.

Word Count: 5.1k

Rangers Looking To Make Moves, David Carlson could be one of them.

Insider Sources Hint at Huge Deal Between Stars and Rangers.

Rangers In Search Of Forward Depth: Potential Move Involving David Carlson?

“Mack? Ready in about five?” Her editor, Sonja, asks as she power walks by Mack’s cubicle. 

“Yep.” Mack answers back absentmindedly. She is currently scrolling through her newsfeed, scanning the ballooning elephant of David’s trade rumors. 

Mack tried to talk herself out of looking, but she hasn’t been able to put her phone away. Social media is a dangerous drug. Mack considers herself an expert navigator, but these rumors involve her life outside of 280 characters. The line between reality and rumor has begun to blur. While this happens in her brain, David says nothing. He probably has his reasons, but Mack can’t help but feel betrayed. Why isn’t he talking to her about this? Doesn’t he trust her? This feels like something they should be talking about, even Lucie said as much at breakfast last week.

Mack finishes reading over the comments of speculation. The rumors seem to be trending towards Dallas or Seattle. Mack’s stomach drops out when she realizes how far away both those options are.

“Ready?” Andrew, her colleague asks. Mack nods, putting her phone into her desk and gathering her notebook. The entire walk to the glass enclosed conference room, Mack tries to shed her personal life. Normally, she steps over that threshold and she can become whoever she needs to be to tell a story. Not today.

Today, Mack is quiet, listening to her team members add productive discussion for next quarters issues. Several locations are floated around that should make Mack excited and jumping to go for them. None of them do. Instead, she finds her focus trailing out the window to the building across the street. The world moves around her, but Mack feels stuck in place. Her least favorite thing.

“Mack, how is your hand not up?” Cecilia, another team member, asks. Mack turns back to her.

“What? Sorry?” Mack’s eyes divert to Sonja who looks back at Mack with a neutral face.

“Would you like to volunteer for Ireland?” Sonja repeats.

Mack has been dying to go to Ireland. There is so much to do there, so many different directions she could take her story, and although she has lived in and traveled all over Europe, she hasn’t made it there yet. She is constantly chatting with her coworkers about how she wants to do a story there. But now her hand stays in her lap. How could she leave the country with it being such tumultuous times at home? What if she leaves and David is traded? Coming back to New York and him not being here would slice her open. 

“When?” 

“Three weeks, but you could go as early as Thursday if you want more exploring time.”

“Oh. Um.” She anxiously rubs at her thighs. “I-”

“You could go after Cabo too.” Sonja answers. Cabo is the Allstar trip she has put together for the Rangers with recommendations from her colleagues. Everything is scheduled including a huge house right on the water. It has multiple pools, a hot tub, a private beach, and exclusive access to the Yacht club. 

“I’m gonna have to say no.” She hears herself say. WHAT!?She shakes off her inner demon who wants to launch a ‘just kidding’. Her whole team looks back at her with surprise. “I just need to stick around here right now. If that’s okay? I’ll take something close.” 

“We have that story on hidden gems in America? A lot of them are on the East Coast. Easily day trips.”

“Yeah, that sounds great!” Mack answers with enthusiasm she doesn’t actually feel.

The meeting moves on, but Mack can’t. Did she really just turn down Ireland for New Hampshire? With everyone’s assignments in hand, the meeting ends. Again, Mack is slow to react. Sonja stays behind.

“Are you okay?” She asks when it’s only the two of them. “You are not yourself.”

“I am a bit distracted.” 

“Anything I can help with?”

“Nope. Thanks for letting me stick around though.” Sonja laughs, shrugging.

“Something is definitely up if you’re missing out on Ireland. Let me know how I can support you, okay?”

Mack nods then Sonja power walks off to her next meeting. After swiping her phone from her drawer, Mack avoids sitting down at her cubical and heads straight to the bathroom at the back of the office. She walks into the last stall, letting her back hit the cool tile. Mack’s head finds her hands, awkwardly shoving her nose to the side due to her phone.

What the hell is happening to me?

Her phone starts to vibrate against her face. She pulls back, seeing David’s picture.

“Hello?” She answers quickly.

“Hi, are you home?”

“No.” Worry settles into her voice.

“Oh okay, no worries. I left my wallet at your place. Just figured it out, now Woody is buying me lunch.” He chuckles. 

“Oh, you can go grab it after lunch?”

“Okay, can I wait for you to get home too? Kinda miss ya.” 

“Yeah.” Mack smiles to herself. 

“I’ll take a look at your bathroom sink too. The water pressure is horseshit.”

“I put in a maintenance request.”

“Why? They didn’t fix it right last time? I hope they come up while I’m working on it so I can teach them what to do.”

“Please don’t.” Mack sighs, but she can’t help a little giggle.

“When will you be home?” He asks her. Mack can hear traffic whizzing by him as he presumably walks along a sidewalk.

“Probably a few hours.” She mumbles. 

“Alright. I’ll entertain myself.” He assures her.

When Mack gets home, she realizes that means he cleaned her entire apartment, fixed her sink, and has dinner in the oven. 

“Wow…” Mack trails off as she walks in. She puts her work bag on the counter and smiles at him by the stove. “Thank you. I haven’t had much time to clean.” She murmurs.

“I know.” He nods, toweling off his hands with the one over this shoulder. “I’ve been keeping you at my place a lot. I figure if I created the problem, I should clean it up.” He puckers his lips for her. “Hi.” He greets her after their kiss.

“Hi.” She smiles. It doesn’t quite brighten up her face or reach her eyes, which David takes notice of.

“You okay?” He tilts his head at her.

“Yeah. Tired.” She lies. 

Well, maybe not fully. She is tired, but the things that are keeping her up at night are things she could be discussing with him. Yet, Mack believes that if he wanted to talk to her about any of this, he would have already. She swallows hard, trying to will the anxious energy in her body away. David’s hands on her hips hold her in place when she tries to move around him. 

“I’m not believing that.” He smiles sympathetically. “But if you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine.” Mack nods. She brushes her hand over his stomach as she walks past. She heads to the fridge to grab a sparkling water from inside. David watches her as she cracks the cap open, taking down a few gulps. She hiccups as she pulls the bottle down from her lips. “Why don’t you go change? That outfit looks great, but you should be comfy with the weather we are having.” He points to the window where sheets of snow fall down. 

“Oh that escalated.” Mack murmurs. She walks to the window, looking out at the droves of swirling snow flakes. She sighs, happy to be in here watching it than still commuting home.

“Mack.” David calls softly to her. She looks over her shoulder at him. “Go.” He encourages her, head tilted towards the hallway. She nods again, doing as he asks and wandering down to her bedroom. 

She knows she is spacey and acting weird. But she isn’t quite sure how to act with him right now. A giant elephant is sitting on her chest and he is behaving like everything is normal. Mack quickly changes into a soft sweatsuit in a sage color. She pulls her hair back into a pony tail, then pulls on new, warm socks with reindeer faces on them that her mom put into her Christmas stocking.  When she walks into the main area again, the TV is playing local news. The sports section is on but it rolls through without any mention of David, other than his goal a few nights ago, the last time the team played.

“It’s weird you’ve had so many days off.” Mack says, leaning against the counter by the bar stools. 

“Yeah. I hate it.” David shakes his head. He pulls the towel off his shoulder, tossing it onto the counter.

“What are we having?”

“Spatchcock chicken and asparagus.”

“Fancy.” Mack smiles at him. He stares back at her. 

“Why are you over there? C’mere.”

“You’re so sensitive today.” Mack rolls her eyes. “If you wanna cuddle just ask. No need to get grumpy that I’m standing across the room from you.” She tries to keep her tone light, but it’s a little snippy.

“Kay, get over here I want to cuddle.” He begrudges. Him and Mack both know she is deflecting. She doesn’t want him looking at her too closely right now.

Mack walks across the kitchen, sliding her arms around his waist. David crushes her into his chest and she can’t help but melt into him. Her shoulders drop, jaw unclenches, and mind quiets completely. The trade rumors dissipate. The worry about what could happen to them floats away. It’s just the two of them holding each other in her kitchen. David’s hand smooths over her pony tail, then begins to rub long strokes up and down her back. Mack turns her nose more into his chest. David tightens his grip on her, then drops his mouth to her hair.

It’s clear they both needed this hug. 

They don’t break away until the timer for the chicken goes off. David pulls it out. As it rests, he roasts the asparagus. Mack puts together a salad with leftover vegetables in the fridge. Then they sit down and eat dinner together with a glass of wine each. When it’s over, Mack and David move through the apartment in sync, cleaning up the main space. As the dishwasher roars to life, Mack flips all the lights off and takes David’s hand to lead him down to her room. 

There, they make love to each other. It’s soft and slow, filled with gentle smooches and quiet moans of pleasure. Afterwards, they tangle their limbs together. David falls asleep first, surprising to Mack. She studies his face as he sleeps, seeing the lines on his face soften in his slumber. With David out, a familiar monster begins to awaken inside of her. 

It comes out in the quiet, darkness of night. It confuses her and brings back all the things that had melted away when she was in David’s arms. A huge lump fills her throat. She rolls over to her other side. Doing so makes David’s hand fall off her hip. A cold shiver rolls through Mack as she buries her nose into the pillow case beneath her face. 

During sex tonight, David had murmured really sweet things to her. He told her he loved her. He told her how beautiful she looked today. He told her how much he missed her while they ran through their different, separate days, that the world gets quiet when she is in his arms. But he didn’t say anything about the rumors that swirl around him in his professional life. Every time he has an opportunity to tell her and he doesn’t, Mack can feel herself retreat a little more. 

Right before he drifted to sleep, David had sleepily murmured that he couldn’t wait until they find a place together. The memory of that now has a single tear dragging down Mack’s cheek.

Because for the first time, she doesn’t feel like her and David are on the same page. He is already thinking about them moving in together. She’s never thought of that. She’s never thought of anything beyond the current day with him. Now he sees a future for them that Mack isn’t sure she wants this way. A future outside of New York isn’t of interest to her. If David isn’t in New York, there is nothing tying them together anymore, therefore if he leaves New York nothing ties him to her anymore. 

Meanwhile, she has stupidly turned down assignments to stay with him. Her brain is consumed of thoughts of him even when she is away. Panic begins to thread through Mack’s body. She’s too in love with him. This is all way more than she signed up for. She never wanted this. He’s changed her entire life and she went along with it.

How could she have let this happen? How could she have let it go this far?

Mack rolls to her back, staring up at the ceiling. Tears race from the corners of her eyes, falling into her ear canals. This has gone too far. She can’t do this with him. With perfect timing as always, her monster starts to whisper:

You’ll never be able to keep him. You can’t pretend all the time to be good enough for him anyway.

Mack shudders at the words that slice deep into her soul. She wipes her tears then wills herself to sleep. 

In the morning, this will all look different. She is sure of that. 

Long before the sunlight streams into her room, David awakens her to make love again. He is above her, dragging his cock through her core with soft strokes that set her on fire. When she shudders through her orgasm, he fills her up with his own, then collapses into the bed next to her. As his breathing evens out, he brings her into his side, holding her close to him.

“I’m excited about our future.” David murmurs, fingers getting slower. “We’re gonna give Lucie and Connor a run for their money.” He kisses the top of her head. 

Guilt swirls through Mack’s body. 

David continues planning for a future with her while she is choking in fight or flight. 

A tear slides silently down her cheek. David’s soft breathing behind her tells her he has fallen back to sleep. 

Mack blinks more tears down her cheeks, bottom lip trembling.

He deserves so much better than this. So much better than her. Those words are no longer the dark monster from before. Instead they’re just the truth.

And she’s going to make sure he is free to find what he deserves.

In his arms, attempting to memorize his touch, she starts to make her plans. The Ireland assignment comes to mind.

On Thursday, she’ll go there. Do what she was always going to do.

Run.

Or fly… like the humming bird he compares her to.

He won’t be surprised. He’ll be hurt, sure. But he’ll move on. He has to.

She tells herself this is all for his freedom. 

But deep down, the monster reminders her its for her own.

- - - & - - -

(David)

On Thursday, David looks down at the burger he ordered, mouth salivating at the big, half pound patty dripping cheese and bacon grease. Now this is a damn burger. One he might even find in his home state. Props to the place for sticking to the owner’s midwestern roots. He assess the sandwich, deciding two hands on this one would probably be best.

“That looks fire.” Connor murmurs. He opted for a French Dip sandwich and fries. 

Between the two of them, there isn’t a green vegetable in sight. 

“I’m going to crush this.” David confirms. He unrolls his silverware set, putting the napkin in his lap just in case some drippage misses his plate. Connor does the same.

“I’m so excited to have beef. Haven’t been able to have it at home since…” Connor trails off. David raises an eyebrow. Connor grins then shakes his head. “I can’t tell ya.”

“Slut.”

“Can’t get enough of her, man. Don’t act like you don’t get it.” 

David smirks. He does get it. In fact, he almost cancelled on this lunch so he could stay home and bury himself between Mack’s thighs again and again. But Mack said she had to get some work done, so here he is for the second time in two days eating lunch with his D partner. Mack and David had transitioned over to his place last night to meet up with the Woods. He loves that she is comfortable working from his place when he isn’t there.

David swipes a tater tot through some ketchup then pops it into his mouth. He hopes by the time he gets home Mack is doing better. She was weird when he left this morning, weird last night too. He is glad they have some time together before he goes on the road this weekend. Mack has an assignment in New York that is keeping her home with him during that time. All he wants to do is go to the rink, order glutinous take out and fuck. 

Connor hulks down a huge bite of his sandwich as David digs into his burger. He needs his napkin immediately, swiping it across his covered lips. 

“So how you doing with everything, man?” 

David swallows.

“What do you mean?” He asks, then goes in for a second bite.

“With the rumors.”

“Oh. I’m not listen.” David dismisses. “I can’t worry about that shit and play. It’s too hard.”

“Yeah, I get it. I was the same. Where are you at with your contract?”

“Doug said we would talk about it after the season. My agent doesn’t think here is any concern. It’s not like I’m gonna ask for the bank.”

“No, but get what you’re worth. I need you around here with me. Can’t handle the Hischier girls by myself.” David chuckles. Silence fills the space between them as they both take a few more bites. “How is Mack taking it all?”

David pauses mid-chew. He shakes his head slightly, then answers when he swallows.

“We haven’t talked about it since none of it is true.”

Connor looks up quickly from his fries. They hover in his pile of ketchup as alarming blue eyes look across the table at David.

“Yeah, but you warned her and everything right?”

David’s tongue runs along his back molars as an awkward silence fills the table.

No, he didn’t.

“I mean, no? She knows that shit out there isn’t true.”

“Sure, but you told her that right?” Connor clarifies, pointing at the center of David’s chest.

David stares back at his defensive partner. Slowly, Connor’s mouth falls into a cringe.

“That is not the person to leave in the dark on those rumors, man.”

As if Connor’s words are the final puzzle, it all clicks for David. The way Mack was this morning. How she turned away from him immediately after sex last night. How quiet she has been, almost to the point of calculated. His heart hammers to a stop in his chest then a big intake of air raises his huge shoulders.

“Oh FUCK!” He yells. 

She’s running.

He knows it and the awareness cools his blood, sending a chill down his spine.

“What?” Connor asks, concern etching his brows together.

“She wanted me to go to lunch with you so she can run. I’ve gotta go, Woody.”

In a calmer moment, David would pull out his wallet and throw down a few bills. But a glance at his phone tells him he doesn’t have time. He’s been gone for over a half hour. She might already be packed and he’s gotta stop her. His long, athletic stride carries him the five blocks back to his place. He rushes by Philip without a greeting, then pounds the up button on the elevator.

“Come on!” He shouts when it takes too long. He eyes the stairwell, but his heart might explode if he runs up all those flights of stairs. The doors open and he almost barrels over a couple and their kid as he rushes in. “Sorry.” He mumbles, pushing the button for his floor, then the ‘close door’ one repeatedly until it does. He bounces on his feet, heart pounding in his ears as he attempts to catch his breath. The doors open, he flies into the hallway, not seeing her. He tries the door on his place and finds it open. 

Fuck, he hopes she is still here. 

“Mack!” He yells. 

No answer. 

His sneakers slap hard against the wood floors as he heads down the hallway. He can see her pony tail floating in the doorway. Instant relief flowing through him.

She’s still here. 

His relief is short lived when he walks forward and sees her packed suitcase on the bed.

- - - & - - -

(Mack)

Mack is zipping up her suitcase when she hears the apartment door open. Her gaze snaps to the doorway. David’s hurried foot steps rush down the hallway. She frowns, then goes back to stuffing her phone charger into the side pocket. This is not ideal, but she planned for it. She is ready for this interaction. Ready for him to beg her to stay here with him and prepared with an army of reasons why they are never going to work, now or in the future. 

“Mack, stop packing.” He calls to her from the hallway. Mack freezes. Of course he already knows. She keeps going, putting the suitcase on its wheels. They meet at the door of his bedroom. “Babe, I’m not going anywhere. I talked to management. None of this is real. I’m not being traded.” Disappointment has Mack sighing internally. She wishes he had told her this days ago.

“Okay.” Mack shrugs, keeping a blank face. David frowns. His eyes move to the right, looking over his room. Every single thing of hers is gone, down to the collection of hair ties on her side of the bed. “I’m heading out of town for awhile on a long assignment. I don’t know when I’ll be back.” David chews on the inside of his cheek, searching her face. He shakes his head slightly, looking confused and hurt.

“Mack, what are you doing?”

“I’m packing.” She swallows hard, hating the way her voice wobbles slightly.

“You’re going out of town. Why do you need your house slippers?” He motions to where they used to sit by the door.

“Because I want them at my place.”

“So, you going out of town means you aren’t going to keep anything here either?”

“I don’t see the point to that.” Mack shrugs. “Like I said, I am heading out on a long assignment. I’m going to be gone for awhile. I’m not sure when I will be back, so I’m taking everything with me.” 

“What?” He questions. “Where are you going?”

“Ireland.”

“Since when? You just told me two nights ago you were here in New York through the Allstar break, and suddenly you’re leaving for an undetermined amount of time?”

“Yeah. That’s this business.” She says flatly, unemotional. David shakes his head.

“What is happening?” He whispers, getting closer to her. He reaches out for her cheek and Mack immediately pulls away. “Is this about a few nights ago? I didn’t mean-“

“No. It’s not. But that was a reminder to me how… different we are. And I think we should be realistic about our shelf life.” David’s eyebrows furrow together. That hurt him. Mack looks away, not wanting to see the sting on his face.

This is inevitable, the monster reminds herself. She’s just pulling the plug before they go back to hating each other and make this harder for everyone around them.

“Shelf life?” He sighs heavily, stepping aside for her to pass by him. He is hot on her heels into the main area of his place. “What the fuck, Mack? We love each other.” 

“For now.” She shrugs her shoulder, going to her purse and double checking she grabbed everything she needed from the main area. She finds her water bottle and phone where she put them a few minutes ago. She’s officially packed. Mack grabs the key to his place, trying to ignoring the light up, corn key chain and the way it burns her skin in her hand. “I can give you your key back.”

“Stop.” David snaps, enclosing her hand with his. He grabs the keys out of her hands. He shakes his head, looking at her, panic all over his face. “Just…” He licks his lips, looking out at the city. “Talk to me.” 

“I am. You don’t like what I’m saying.” She retorts. 

“I don’t understand what you’re saying. We literally had an incredible night and I make a comment about how I’m excited to move in together someday, and you’re running now? What are you afraid of?” He emphasizes the last line at her, pausing with his hands out to the side. The Iowa keychain in his hand is blinking red, green and blue. Mack stares at it, pursing her lips. A huge lump swells in her throat. She tries to swallow but can’t. 

“I just don’t think this is going to work.”

“What?”

“You and me. So I think we should.” She moves her hands apart. “Go in different directions.” 

Stunned, David straightens. He blinks, trying to absorb the blow of her words. He runs the hand without her keys in it through his hair then blows out a heavy sigh. His hand roughly rubs at the stubble from where he shaved his beard off yesterday, leaving only his signature mustache. Mack blinks off the slight hitch of his breathing on the inhale. 

“Okay.” He nods his head, taking another deep breath. 

David stands on the other side of the island, green eyes intense with emotion as he pins her to the cabinets behind her. He shakes his head then stands to his full height. The keys in his hand slide across the counter to her. They skid to a stop next to her right hand. His arms cross over his chest.

“Okay, I’ll see you when you get back then.”

“David.” Mack rolls her eyes, throwing the keys into her purse.

Why won’t he let her go easily? How can’t he see what she sees? How different they are? How this started with them hating each other and grew into this thing that was never supposed to happen? How she isn’t meant for this WAG, farm wife, American lifestyle that he wants? She needs to be free- wings wide open so she can breathe. Not turning down assignments and worrying about moving to Dallas.

David doesn’t say anything else to her, just stares her down. Mack can tell he is holding everything he can inside. For her benefit or his, she can’t tell.

“I don’t know when I’m coming back.” She reiterates.

“Okay.” He is eerily calm now.

“So we should go separate ways.” 

“No.” He says clearly and assertively. “You wanna run from me, baby? Then just run. Go. But when you’re done with that, and you come back home, I’ll still be here, loving you. You can move your shit back in then too.”

Mack swallows, looping her arm through the handles of her bags, looking down at them because she can’t look at him. 

“It’s for the best.” She repeats. 

“Mack. I love you. So much.” He whispers, words rough and callused like his hands from working the farm his whole life. The words sound painful as if they rip up his body when he says them. Nothing like the ones he whispered to her last night when they made love. 

It almost gets her to stay.

She hesitates for three more seconds, but her mind screams go. So she does.

“Goodbye, David.” 

He puts his head in his hands as she turns to walk out of the kitchen. She can hear his heavy, uncontrolled breathing behind her until the closed door cuts them off. 

Mack doesn’t breathe the entire ride down the elevator. A numbness comes over her as she tries to convince herself to keep moving forward. She thought she would feel better after doing this. That she was holding them back, him mostly, and cutting the tie would give her back that feeling of freedom she craves. The freedom that he deserves too.

All she feels now is dead inside.

Mack walks out of the building, strutting across the sidewalk with her hand high in the air to hail down a cab. She isn’t sure how her feet are moving so fluidly with how violently she shakes.

“Goodnight, Ms. Hischier.” Philip calls cheerfully behind her.

“Bye!” She calls, waving over her shoulder. She can’t turn around. If she turns around, her feet are going to go right back through that door. 

And she just can’t.

This is not who she is.

She isn’t a WAG. She isn’t a farmer’s girlfriend. She isn’t anywhere close to wife material or a forever kind of girl.

She is a runner. A lone wolf. Who should have taken that elevator home a year ago instead of jumping into bed with her brother-in-law’s teammate. 

The words continue on like a self-deprecating mantra she can’t silence. 

David deserves better. He deserves a wife. Someone who wants to settle into that small country life with him, or in Dallas, and stands next to him through the storm. Not someone who can only see this working if all the cards are stacked in their favor.

Mack, I love you. So much. His voice rings through her brain.

“Fuck.” Mack sobs, shakily trying to breathe in the back of the cab as it pulls away from him. 

Over her heart, her fingers clutch his number on her neck. She pulls, snapping the necklace off her body.

“Ow.” She whispers to herself as her head falls back to the head rest.

If this was what she needed to do, then why does it hurt this damn bad?

Read more Mack and David here.

[queen-of-deans-booty]

Deadly Proposal: Part Five

Pairing: Dean Winchester x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~2.5k

Warnings: angst, drug use (cocaine), heartbreak

Summary: Amber takes it a step too far when she throws a party at Dean's house. She crosses a line completely when she reverts back to her old self, and you are done breaking your back for her.

Deadly Proposal Masterlist

Square Filled: force feeding for @badthingshappenbingo

Author’s Note: any and all comments are appreciated <3

x

The fight with your sister and Dean made it so you couldn’t sleep well last night. You slide out of bed, throw on something to wear that’s semi-appropriate, and head down to the kitchen. You’re not expecting to see anyone but Sonja, so you’re surprised when Amber is sitting at the kitchen island. She gives you a side glance but doesn’t say anything to you.

“I thought you were leaving.”

“I know you want me gone but my boyfriend didn't show.”

“I never said I wanted you gone,” you sigh. “I was frustrated yesterday, and I said something I didn’t mean. I’m sorry.”

“Whatever,” she shrugs. “Looks like you’re stuck with me.”

You sit at the kitchen counter and turn to her.

“Why don’t you and I go into town today and look for jobs? You said you were going to try.”

“Yeah, maybe we can do that later.”

“You need to do it sooner rather than later. Dean only gave you a week here.”

“What are you, my mom?” she scoffs.

She leaves her untouched food on the counter and storms to her room. Your shoulders sag in defeat but you don’t dwell for long. Sonja takes her food away and sets a plate in front of you with a kind smile on her face.

“Thanks, Sonja.”

As you eat, you think about Dean and your fight. Was it a fight? You know you’re not supposed to feel anything for him since you’re just a blood bag for him but the more he drinks from you, the more you crave him. Not just him, but his time and attention as well. You want to know so much about him but he doesn’t give you much to work with. He’s so mysterious and it’s driving you insane.

The thing with Amara isn’t sitting well with you either. You hated how jealous you got when she came over. She’s so beautiful, and may or may not have been involved with Dean. You subconsciously touch the wounds on your neck that have mostly healed. What did she mean when she said your blood was special? She said that she’d never smell anything like it, but doesn’t she smell blood all the time? No, that was carnal behavior. Dean talked to her but you’re not sure what he said to her. Does he even care?

No, screw this. You’re not going to sit here and continue to wonder. You’re going to get answers now. After you’re done eating, you walk upstairs to where Dean’s office is. Your hand hovers over the doorknob as doubt begins to creep inside your mind. Would he give you the time of day? Would he send you to your room like a petulant child?

“I can hear you breathing, you know,” Dean says from inside.

It’s now or never. You open the door and walk inside. Dean is sitting at his desk typing quickly on his laptop.

“What are you doing?”

“Nosy much?” he smirks.

“I can’t help it.” You shrug. “I’m bored and you’re not paying attention to me.”

Dean chuckles and leans back in his chair to give you his undivided attention.

“If you must know, I’m working.”

“You have a job?” you gasp in a teasing tone.

Dean shakes his head with a smile he can’t resist. “Yes.”

“What is it you do?”

“Nothing you need to know about.”

You walk over to his desk, sit across from him, and cross your legs.

“Do you realize you’re always brooding or does it come naturally to you?” Dean rolls his eyes and continues typing. “So, where’s your brother? I’m assuming you have one, right?”

“Are we doing this right now?”

“Fine.” You pause. “Do you have any parents?” He doesn’t reply. “I’m going to keep asking you questions until you answer.”

“Fine.” Dean groans and pushes his laptop away to pay attention to you. “You have five minutes. Go.”

“How old are you?”

“Over half a millennium. Seven hundred and sixty-two years if you want to get specific.”

“How did you become a vampire?”

“I was working a hunt when I was human. Vampires. They got to me before I could get to them. I’ll spare you the bloody details.”

“What do you do for work?”

“I help women escape their abusers.”

You’re taken aback. You did not expect that to come from him. You want to know more but then you’d use up your five minutes and you need to more about him.

“You made it sound like you had a family. Any siblings?”

“Dead.”

“Parents?”

“Dead.”

“Are all your friends dead, too?” Dean cracks a smile and looks away to try and hide it. Your smile fades slowly. “Are you going to kill me when you’re done with me?”

“No.”

“Why me? Why take me out of everyone you could have taken?”

“I already told you.”

“Yeah, my ‘special blood’,” you scoff. “What does that mean? Amara said I had special blood, too. What makes me special?”

“You remind me of someone I used to know. She had the same blood you did. In fact, you two are more similar than I’d care to admit. Maybe I don’t want to be alone anymore. Maybe she was the best thing to have happened to me in a long time, and I want to have that again.” Your mouth goes agape as you try and process his words. He clears his throat and pulls his laptop closer to him. “Times up. Now get out and let me work.”

That’s more than you thought you’d get so you won’t complain. You get up as he continues typing, and you walk to the door slowly. You look back at him but he doesn’t spare you another glance. Since you don’t want to see Amber and Dean doesn’t want to hang with you, you decide to hang out in your room for the next few hours either reading, playing video games, or browsing Amazon for new stuff for your room.

It’s nearing dinner time so you get out of bed to see what Sonja has made. When you open the door, you hear music blasting from downstairs and commotion that sounds like chatter coming from a huge crowd. You take the stairs down two at a time to see people filing into Dean’s house. Strangers who are already inside hold red cups filled with God only knows what. This is a party. Dean would never throw a party and you didn’t, and there is only one person here that would.

You push past everyone to get to the living room where Amber is sitting on the couch with two nasty-looking men. Unkempt hair, dirty clothes, and yellow nails.

“Amber! What the hell are you doing?!”

“It’s a party!” she grins. “I was bored of staying in this house with nothing to do.”

“Fuck, Amber! This isn’t your house.”

“It’s not yours either. Plus, Dean is almost always gone. He won’t mind, I’m sure.”

How did you ever think you could change her? How did you ever think she would be willing to change? You’re about to respond to her when you feel a hand wrap around your arm. Dean pulls you away from Amber and to an empty room nearby. He shoves you inside the room and slams the door behind him with a deadly glare on his face.

“Dean, I am so sorry. I didn't know she was doing this. All these people just showed up,” you stutter. “God, she always does shit like this. I shouldn’t have brought her here.”

“Yeah, no shit,” Dean glares. “Get rid of them.”

“Yeah, you got it.”

“I mean it, Y/N. I am a vampire and this party is filled with blood bags. Get rid of them before I do.”

Your eyes widen when you realize the threat behind his words. You leave the room and push through the sea of people that seemed to get bigger from ten minutes ago. You grab a few cups from people but they pass you by without another thought.

“Party’s over! You need to leave!” you shout over the loud music. No one is listening to you so you push your way to the DJ who is spinning the record player. “Hey! You need to stop. The party is over!”

“Get lost,” he says and continues playing music.

The control is slowly leaving your body and you start to panic. People are doing body shots off of other people, some are in the pool half-naked, and some are playing beer pong and doing drugs, among them is Amber. From the DJ stand, you can see over everyone’s head and to the couch where you left Amber. There are white lines on the table, one of which she sniffs up her nose. You don’t think anyone can hear your heart break over the music.

You jump off the platform and push through the crowd to get to her. She sniffs up another line of drugs when you yank on her hair.

“What the fuck?”

“Are you serious right now?”

“Great, it’s the fun police,” she giggles with her friends. She grabs her alcohol bottle and takes a few swigs. “You need to lighten up, Y/N. Have fun. Get drunk. Get laid. Where’s Dean?”

Tears prick the back of your eyes. “This isn’t funny, Amber. This is my life. You come in and ruin everything! You’re poison and a parasite. I don’t even know why I helped you in the first place!”

Amber glares but she is too high to care enough to bite back.

“Let’s play Seven Minutes in Heaven!” she shouts. A few people cheer her on as she shugs the rest of her alcohol. Some drops fall from her mouth when she pulls the bottle away but she wipes it away with the back of her hand. “Y/N, you go first!”

“No, I’m not playing, Amber. Seriously, the party is over.”

Amber doesn’t listen and spins the bottle on the now drug-free table. The bottle spins and lands on a spot that’s right behind you, and she grins when she sees who is standing there.

“Dean, you gotta go in the closet with Y/N.”

You turn swiftly and see Dean standing there with an emotionless face. Shit, he looks pissed. Someone grabs your shoulder and pushes you and Dean into the nearest closet. The door closes before you can say anything. 

“I’m so sorry,” you whisper.

“I don’t care about the party, anymore.” Dean steps closer to you, puts a hand on the wall behind you, and leans in closer to you. “What are you doing to me?”

“What do you mean?” you whisper.

“I can’t get you out of my head. You’re so different from her.” You can only assume he’s talking about the woman before you. He’s so close that your heart is racing a million miles a second. He leans in so close that you think he is going to kiss you but he doesn’t. He’s stopping himself as if kissing you is the most horrible thing to do. You sigh in disappointment which Dean picks up on. “Fuck it.”

He turns back to you, grabs both sides of your head, and kisses you so deeply that your knees immediately go weak. He holds you close and takes complete control over the kiss. His lips mold to yours like they were always meant to be there. His tongue touching yours sends sparks flying down your body. Your head is swirling too quickly for you to keep up, and all you can smell is him.

He finally pulls away from you and you lean against the wall to steady yourself. Dean doesn’t say a word and leaves the closet since the seven minutes are up. You touch your lips with a shaky hand as you force yourself to calm your racing heart and mind. Amber is gone from the couch when you leave the closet but you don’t care about her. You storm over to the DJ who is taking a water break and snatch the microphone from the stand.

“Party is over. Get out. The police have been called and are on their way!”

That does it for most. They scatter like startled cats and the rest leave because everyone else is. Soon, the house is empty and covered with trash and empty bottles. You’ll clean this later but right now, there is one person on your mind who you need to deal with. It’s not hard to find your sister when she is vomiting her guts out in the downstairs bathroom. You don’t care if you get vomit on you. You yank her away from the toilet by her hair and pull her toward the door.

“Wait, Y/N, I’m sorry. Please don’t do this,” she cries.

“You’re done, Amber. You’re not living here anymore.”

“Please, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I won’t do it again,” she sobs.

You drag her to the front door and throw her out on her ass. She has tears running down her face and looks at you with a heartbroken look.

“Please, Y/N, don’t do this to me.”

“No, I am not doing this again. Go find somewhere else to sleep, and go find someone else who will give a shit about you because I am done.”

With that, you slam the door in her face. You start to clean the house from the partygoers but that doesn’t distract you from Amber’s cries on the front porch. You continue to ignore her until she stops which means she either fell asleep on the porch or she left. A quick check through the window tells you it’s the latter.

Amber stumbles from the house in tears and down the long driveway to the road. She has no idea where she is going to go but maybe there is a homeless shelter that might take her for the night. She pulls her thin jacket tighter against herself since it’s starting to get cold outside. She walks further down the road when she hears the rumble of a car behind her. Maybe she can hitch a ride to town.

She turns and puts her hand out to avoid being blinded by the headlights. The car slows down next to her, and the driver rolls down the passenger side window.

“Can I get a ride into town, please?”

“Hop in,” the man says.

Amber is quick to hop inside the car where the heater is gently blowing.

“Sorry if I seem like a mess. My sister just kicked me out of her life, basically. I know I’m a fuck up. I fuck up all the time. I understand why she would but she’s my sister. We’re supposed to stick together through thick and thin, you know? So I do a bit of drugs. So what?”

“You poor girl,” the man says. “I can help you.”

Amber looks up and sees he hasn’t moved the car since she got in. She glances over at him in confusion. He has a beer belly, hairy arms, a scraggly beard, and dark eyes.

“How?”

The man grins with sharp fangs where his canines should be. He grabs Amber and sinks his teeth into her neck. Amber screams for her life but no one is around to hear them. He’s right about one thing: poor girl.

x

Follow my library blog @aqueenslibrary​​​​​​ where I reblog all my stories, so you can put notifications on there without the extra stuff :)

[captainqster]

How old would your OC say they were at the point their childhood ended? Do they consider this too soon? Or perhaps too late?

Thank you for the ask! Sorry it took me so long to get to it, I had a few that were hard to think up answers for.

For Ilya he'd say his childhood ended when he was handed off to his first mentor, Sonja, and that was at the age of 12. While he did have a happy 3 years under Sonja's tutelage, Ilya never wanted to leave his village in the first place and Sonja's untimely death left him in the hands of his second mentor, Raamil.

Then followed 10 years of misery before his exile, but he wouldn't say his childhood ended too soon or too late. Being taken from his village was simply the way of things.

[sonjalikestodraw]

You don’t have to answer this if you don’t want to but, do you have any Hunted sketches? I only ask because he’s the only voice that you haven’t shown a design for yet. Like Skeptic also doesn’t have a ref sheet but we still got to see his design in that ship art.

Oh hell yeah I do. Here, lemme dig up some:

His ref sheet is done, I just gotta finish the text for it. Hunted is among my top fave voices!!! I love him to bits <3

I believe I have a sort of unique take on him, visually. I imagine him as a wisened hunter-gatherer, plucked from the beginning of time. He represents Quiet's Survival instinct, after all. My discord friends have come to call him gramps and gilf.

There's also this shitpost I made of him last year, because bnuy

elderly twink shows you baby gays how to run in heels

[s0laura]

Not anyone or anything? ANYONE??

idk you could be the enemy rn

[the-nocturnal-writer]

💘 HEART W/ ARROW - what traits do they look for in a relationship? do they believe in love at first sight?

P.S. It's your fault for posting Crowley's first drawing and us hammering Crowley's name into the talented artist's mind (don't misunderstand, in a good way🙃).

You and your honey words pffft. On a serious note, thank you, all the attention he’s getting is so sweet. Now to finally answer the question! Sorry it took a bit. 😭

Ashborn believes in love at first sight, even fated encounters, she knows the world is a mysterious place and does mysterious things. As for traits, Ash looks for someone to be their partner in crime, who isn’t afraid to follow them into darkness and come out the other side laughing like idiots. They want a relationship that feels like two peas in a chaotic pod, like a team. Even if Ashborn has a bad habit of putting others before herself. 

Constantin doesn’t believe in love at first sight but then again, how would he know? Love is a confusing maze to wonder and he’s barely understanding what he wants from it. From what little he’s experienced, Con would be attracted to kind hearts. Someone who won’t judge him for what he is and be by his side when shit hits the fan. In other words. He’s not a hard man to impress.

Eden believes in love at first sight but is also careful with whom she falls for. It’s really important to Eden that her partner is family-orientated, she has a daughter who’s going nowhere anytime soon and all she can hope for is someone to love Fern as much as she does. Be a good parental figure and Eden’s an easy heart to win. 

Heka doesn’t, he feels love is far too complicated to happen instantaneously. Love needs time to nurture. Heka looks for one thing when wanting a relationship and that’s safety. He wants to feel like he can be himself around them. He wants to have a home to share and cherish. Heka doesn’t ask for much, just a life and relationship that makes his existence feel complete. 

Rowan doesn’t love without first having some sort of bond, so they think love at first sight is a load of shit. Very negative view for someone who wants to have that bond so badly, seeking someone who will hold them close and not let go. Rowan will do everything to deny they have feelings for someone and need a relationship, so someone who challenges them and pushes to be by their side will be cherished for eternity if successful. They need some stability after a very unstable past. 

Sonja doesn’t believe in love at first sight but she likes to think it’s real for others, it’s such a sweet idea to think someone falls so easily. Sonja is someone who appreciates honesty and having a relationship that isn’t built on lies, so often she’ll admit and talk about her past. Stick around for that and it’s a step in the right direction to having a very loveable devil. Another romance option that craves some stability. 

Crowley doesn’t believe in love at first sight, much like Rowan, he needs some sort of bond to feel anything. Where to begin with him… Crow is drawn to strong people. Not physically strong (though he won’t complain), just someone with a strong will and mind, who sticks by their beliefs and morals. It never fails to impress him when someone isn’t afraid of him or shutting down his pessimistic views and encouraging him to see the world differently. He needs someone to make sure he doesn’t tear the world apart. Optimism, kindness and being a stubborn ass is key.

[dunbonnets]

READ CHAPTER ONE NOW

synopsis. ━━ when sonja smith's entire life goes to ruin with the fall of wall maria, she decides to join the cadet corps, in hopes of becoming a scout like her uncle. and it is there that she finds not only her purpose in life, but meets a boy that will change her life entirely. ( read full synopsis here. )

word count. ━━ 3,958k words

reading links. ━━ available on tumblr and ao3

tag list. ━━ @pseudonym-lux @void-daniella (want to be tagged? either comment or send me an ask or dm!)

Year 847

　　Two painfully slow years had come and gone since Wall Maria had fallen, and Shiganshina District along with it.

　　In that time, Sonja Smith had lost everything; her home, her family, and dare she say, even her heart and spirit. She was but a hollowed shell of the person she used to be, unable to remember the last time she was even happy or dreamed without reliving such horrible memories of that day.

　　Alone and with nowhere to go, Sonja made the choice to enlist in the Cadet Corps as soon as she was able, knowing that dedicating her life to protecting humanity was far better than cowering behind yet another wall for the remainder of her life — however long that may be.

　　She had talked about it once with her mother, who was not at all enthusiastic about the thought of her only daughter going beyond the wall to fight titans. And now, as she stood in orderly fashion with her fellow classmates of the 104th Cadet Corps, Sonja couldn't help but wonder if her mother was looking down on her with disappointment for the choice she had made.

　　Would she be angry with her for enlisting and for putting her life on the line? Or would she finally understand that this had always been her dream?

　　Sonja bit down on her bottom lip, ridding her mind of those thoughts, and peered up through her blonde bangs at their Cheif Instructor, Commandant Keith Shadis. He stood before them in uniform, his hands clasped behind his back, announcing with authority that their introduction ceremony had begun.

　　Upon hearing those words, Sonja immediately straightened her back, lifted her chin, and looked forward, trying her best to make herself look presentable as the Commandant's surveying eyes skimmed over the class of the 104th Cadet Corps in an almost intimidating manner.

　　“Hey, Mop-Top!” Commandant Shadis shouted, and the nickname, though not directed at her, had caused Sonja to frown.

　　From the corner of her eye, she could see a blonde boy tense up before raising his arm in a salute across his chest. “Sir!”

　　“What do they call you, maggot?” Commandant Shadis asked.

　　“Armin Arlert, from Shiganshina District, sir!” The boy introduced himself, voice loud and unwavering, though lacking confidence as he appeared to be nervous from being singled out amoungst the class already.

　　A sharp pain pierced her heart when she heard where the boy was from. Shiganshina. Her home. Their home, as it turns out. She never thought she would miss it so much. Silently, she wondered how many other cadets were from there as well.

　　Commandant Shadis quirked a brow. “Wow, seriously? Why would your parents curse you with such a dumb name?”

　　Sonja's jaw clenched, and she bit down on her tongue to keep herself from speaking up and defending the boy. She knew that the their Chief Instructor was only trying to intimidate them, but she couldn't help but feel slightly angered by his method.

　　Though she had not turned her head to properly look at the boy, she didn't see anything wrong with his hair, let alone his name. Armin was a nice name. She had never heard it before today, but she liked it.

　　“It was my grandfather, sir!” The boy—Armin—answered promptly.

　　Commandant Shadis was now standing directly in Armin's face, leaning down slightly to be eye level with the blonde boy. “Cadet Arlert! Why is a runt like you here?”

　　“To help humanity overcome the titans!” Armin shouted his answer, seemingly more nervous than before.

　　“That is delightful to hear!” Commandant Shadis straightened his spine, the volume of his voice never lowering as he spoke. “You're gonna be a great light snack for them!” He then reached out, placing his hand on top of Armin's head, spinning the boy around and making him face the other way. “Row Three, About Face, runt!”

　　He stepped away from Armin Arlert and approached another cadet standing in line, shouting in their face and demanding to know their name and hometown as well. And Sonja stood there, silent, her gaze forward as she listened to him move around, using the same method he used on Armin in an attempt to intimidate even more of them.

　　Nervous beads had accumulated along her brow as Sonja silently prayed that Commandant Shadis wouldn't direct his attention upon her. But just when she thought she was in the clear, he was suddenly towering over her small frame. Her racing heart leapt into her throat, her mouth drying.

　　“Now look at what we have here,” Commandant Shadis said, his booming voice nearly making her flinch, but she managed to keep her composure. “Tired of the tea parties, runt?”

　　Sonja almost scoffed, but raised her arm in a salute across her chest instead. “I've never been to a tea party, sir!”

　　“Is that so?” He leaned down slightly, getting right in her face. “And what do they call you, runt?”

　　“Sonja Smith, from Shiganshina District, sir!” She introduced herself, and it was just as she had feared.

　　A series of whispers erupted from her fellow classmates when they heard her name. She had to refrain from nervously biting her lip and looking down at her boots as she felt their stares burning into her head from all directions.

　　Sonja hadn't wanted people to know her name. It wasn't that she was ashamed of it, but she was worried upon enlisting that people would treat her differently because of who her uncle was. More importantly, she feared what would happen if they contacted her uncle and informed him of her enlistment into the military.

　　Would he decline her application? Would he send her back inside the walls? Sonja was scared to face him, though she hoped by the time she did that she would have proven her worth. Surely, her uncle wouldn't be able to send her away if he saw how capable she was… right?

　　Commandant Shadis continued to stare down at the uncomfortable cadet standing before him in silence, his eyes widened slightly. He observed her appearance carefully and couldn't help but notice the similarities between the girl and the Commander of the Survey Corps. Same eyes. Same hair. Same name. This couldn't be a coincidence.

　　“Smith, huh?” He eventually said. “Any relation to Commander Erwin Smith?”

　　And there it was.

　　The question that Sonja hoped would never be asked. But it had. And she knew she couldn't lie, so she gave an honest answer, which only seemed to erupt more whispers from her fellow classmates.

　　“Yes, sir,” Sonja replied, fist still pressed against her heart in an unwavering salute as she addressed her chief instructor. “Commander Erwin Smith is my uncle.”

　　Nothing but silence followed, and Sonja suddenly felt uncomfortable in her own skin as she waited for the Commandant Shadis to address her again. But he never said another word, at least not to her, and Sonja wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

　　He walked away, and Sonja relaxed her tense shoulders, exhaling a shaky breath.

　　The man went back to humiliating more of the cadets, one by one, choosing his targets carefully to see who would break and who wouldn't. He head-butted a boy named Jean Kirstein and lifted the bald-headed boy, Connie Springer, by the sides of his head, giving him a thorough talking to due to the disgraceful salute he had given.

　　It wasn't long before Shadis was standing in front of a brunette girl, shouting in her face as he had with many of the other cadets. Although, this time, Sonja could tell something was different, so she couldn't help but steal a quick glance at the girl to see what had caused the tone of Commandant's voice to change so suddenly.

　　The girl was… eating a potato?

　　Sonja couldn't believe it. What the hell was the girl thinking of stealing a potato and eating it out here? This was neither the time nor place to indulge yourself with a snack!

　　“You are officially on my shit list! Just who in the hell are you?” Commandant Shadis shouted into her face, yet the girl never once wavered. Her expression remained the same, and she didn't stop chewing her bite of potato either.

　　Immediately, the girl swallowed her food, and while still clutching the potato in her right hand, she lifted her arm across her chest in a salute. “Sasha Braus from Dauper Village, at your service. Reporting for duty, sir!”

　　He towered over the girl. “Sasha Braus, huh? And what is that you're clutching in your right hand?”

　　“A steamed potato!” Sasha replied. “It sat there in the mess hall begging to be eaten. Sir!”

　　“The theft, I understand,” Commandant Shadis said, the tone of his voice changing so drastically that even Sonja felt on edge from where she was standing. “But here? Why eat it here of all places?”

　　“It looked quite delicious. And it was getting cold,” Sasha answered nonchalantly. “So I gave it shelter in my stomach, sir.”

　　By now, all the cadets—including Sonja—were staring between Sasha and their Cheif Instructor with wide eyes, unable to believe what was happening. Their minds silently wondered just what sort of punishment the girl was bound to receive for her behaviour.

　　“Why?” He questioned, appearing both confused and curious at the same time. It was obvious this was the first time something like this happened, so naturally he was dumbfounded by the nonchalant answers the girl was giving him in return. “I can't comprehend. Why would you eat that potato?”

　　“Are you asking me why people eat potatoes?” Sasha asked with some hesitancy laced in her words, either not fully understanding the question or at the very least was ataken by it. “I'm surprised you don't know, sir.”

　　Commandant Shadis continued to stare at her in silence, eliciting a nervous sound from the girl as she lowered her head a moment later. Then, much to everyone's surprise, Sasha Braus tore her potato in half before offering the man a piece of her stolen, steaming food.

　　“Here, sir. Have half.”

　　The Commandant was surprised by her actions, and he snatched the half she was offering to him into his hand. “Have half?” He repeated. “Really?”

　　And then, shortly after, the girl received her punishment in full.

　　Not only had she lost meal privileges for the next five days, but the girl was told to run laps until she was on the verge of death. And as if everyone wasn't already surprised enough by what the girl's behaviour, Sasha Braus offered their Commandant a tight-lipped smile and accepted her punishment without a fight.

　　What the hell?

　　⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

　　Sonja Smith was, in simple words, an absolute nervous wreck.

　　Ever since her classmates had discovered she was the niece of Commander Erwin Smith, they had done nothing but stare at her for the remainder of the day, whispering amoungst themselves. They didn't even try to hide it either, which made her even more uncomfortable as she did her best to ignore them all.

　　When the sun had set, a bell rang across the camp, announcing that it was time for dinner in the mess hall. Having already changed out of her uniform and into some casual clothing consisting of brown pants paired with a navy blue blouse and a light blue cardigan, she had soon found herself sitting at a table alone with a tray of food placed in front of her.

　　Sonja kept her head down as she began eating her dinner in silence, avoiding the stares she could feel being cast her way. For a while, she thought nobody would join her, that she was going to be all alone. But that didn't seem to be the case when a tray of food suddenly appeared beside her own.

　　She looked up from her food and turned slightly, finding a blonde boy sitting beside her. He offered her a kind smile, which she was too nervous to return.

　　“Hello,” Sonja offered instead, her voice quiet. She wondered if he could even hear her over the consistent chatter in the mess hall.

　　“I'm Armin,” he greeted, and it was then she realized that he was the same boy Commandant Shadis had insulted earlier during their introduction ceremony.

　　Finally, she produced a timid smile. “Sonja.”

　　“So is it true?” A twinge of sadness had found its way into his voice all of a sudden. “Are you really from Shiganshina District?”

　　Sonja frowned and looked away, her food suddenly far more interesting. “Yes,” she said eventually, her fingers fumbling with the sleeves of her cardigan.

　　“Is that why you are here?” Armin asked with caution.

　　She stiffened at the answer, remaining silent, flashes of bodies and blood and dust soaring through her mind, and Armin realized his mistake then.

　　His eyes widened when he noticed her reaction. He could tell he had overstepped by asking such a thing. It certainly wasn't his intention to make her sad or relive any painful memories, he had only asked because he was genuinely curious why she had joined the Cadet Corps. Because he couldn't for the life of him understand why someone like her—so kind and shy and a complete mystery to him—would be here otherwise.

　　“I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you,” Armin apologized. “You don't have to tell me if you are not comfortable. I just thought, if you were there that day too, maybe that is why you were here.” He eventually averted his gaze, unable to bear the sight of her sadness anymore. “I don't remember seeing you around Shiganshina much.”

　　She could hear the sincerity of his apology in his voice and turned to face him after a moment. He wasn't looking at her anymore, and his bottom lip was drawn between his teeth as he seemed to be internally scolding himself.

　　Is that why you are here. That's what he said to her. But she knew what he was really asking. He wanted to know if she had lost someone that day. She didn't have it in her to tell him that she had. That she lost everything. Even though it has been two years, the pain was still so fresh.

　　Sonja frowned as she stared at the side of his face, realizing that he had lost someone when Shiganshina had fallen too. She understood his pain, and suddenly felt a strong urge to reach out and comfort him but ultimately chose not to.

　　“It's okay,” Sonja said reassuringly. The sound of her voice caused him to look at her again. His brows were knitted in surprise, as though he couldn't believe she had forgiven him so easily. “And… I don't remember seeing you around much in Shiganshina, either. Though, I hardly left home, and didn't have any friends there, so I suppose that is why you must not recognize me.”

　　“Oh,” Armin frowned. “Why?

　　“Why?” she repeated in confusion.

　　“I mean, why didn't you have friends,” Armin elaborated. “You are not like the others. The kids who would… who would be mean to me back in Shiganshina.” He seemed embarrassed to admit that he had been bullied back in their hometown, and she couldn't for the life of her understand why someone would ever be so cruel to someone like him. “You are nice.”

　　Nice. The way he said it made her heart flutter.

　　Sonja shrugged and lowered her head, attempting to hide behind her curtain of blonde hair. “I've never been very good at making friends,” she admitted, almost painfully, and was unable to stop herself from wondering what he thought of her now.

　　Would he think me pathetic now that he knew I was too scared to make a friend?

　　“Well, you can be my friend,” Armin offered kindly and without an ounce of hesitation. Her eyes snapped up to meet his own, a look of surprise covering her pretty features, and his cheeks flushed as he averted his gaze once again. “I-I mean, only if you want to…”

　　For most of her childhood, she had been alone, with nobody but her older brother to play with. She had always wanted to play with the other kids outside, but never had the courage to ask if she could join them. The fear of being rejected or bullied had always made her look the other way. But now, after all this time, someone was asking her if she wanted to be their friend. She could almost cry with joy.

　　A sheepish grin inevitably spread across her face, which seemed to bring Armin some relief, her silence having been torture to him and only making the blush on his cheeks deepen.

　　“I would really like that. Thank you, Armin.” She bit her lip. “But you don't have to be my friend just because of what I said.”

　　“N-No!” Armin exclaimed, shaking his head at the assumption. He wasn't taking pity on her at all and he desperately wanted to reassure her of that. “It's not like that. I-I want to be your friend, Sonja. I wouldn't have offered otherwise.”

　　She believed him.

　　“Okay,” Sonja smiled. Then she held her hand out towards him, surprising even herself with her own actions. “Friends?”

　　Armin glanced down at her hand, and a relieved smile broke out across his face. She believed him. And that made him so happy that his cheeks started to hurt from how big his smile had suddenly gotten. He reached out and took her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. Her skin was warm and welcoming, as was her smile. His cheeks were burning as he met her blue eyes, and he realized in that moment just how much they reminded him of the blue hydrangeas he would often come across in Shinganshina from time to time.

　　“Friends,” he echoed, his smile unwavering.

　　Neither of them seemed to be aware of the lingering moment that passed between them, far too engrossed in each other's smile to realize they'd been holding hands for far longer than they initially intended.

　　It was Sonja who eventually withdrew her hand from Armin's, a faint blush coating her freckled cheeks as she looked down at her tray. She took a bite of her bread in a futile attempt to hide the relentless smile still on her face, and swallowed just as two more people joined them at their table.

　　She looked up to see who it was, and found a boy sitting across from her. He had much darker hair than Armin's and his eyes were teal. The girl sitting beside him had dark hair as well, though hers was much darker and her skin was far paler, and a red scarf was wrapped securely around her neck.

　　Before Sonja could greet them, Armin spoke up from beside her. He was eager to tell them her name, as though it was something special and he had the great privilege to do so. And then he told her that their names were Eren Jaeger and Mikasa Ackerman, and that they were his best friends from Shiganshina. She offered them a polite smile as stared across the table at them. They returned it with one of their own, offering her polite greetings.

　　Not much later, a group of their classmates had formed around their table, their attention solely on Eren as they asked the boy questions about what happened in Shiganshina the day it had fallen. The topic of discussion had stirred an uneasy feeling in Sonja's stomach as she lowered her head and attempted to block everything out.

　　Eren didn't seem as bothered by their questions as she was, and it was something that Armin noticed as he turned slightly to look at Sonja.

　　Her head hung so low that he could barely even see her face through her blonde hair, and she wasn't eating her food anymore, her hands now in her lap underneath the table. He frowned, knowing that the conversation was upsetting her.

　　Armin was itching to reach under the table and grab her hand, wanting to comfort her in some way, but he didn't. Nor did he know what to say to make her feel better. Instead, he sat there in silence, a permanent frown etched into his features as he simply watched her, as though he was waiting for something to happen.

　　At one point, when Eren dropped his spoon with a clutter and reached up to cover his mouth, his teal eyes widening in a way that told Armin his friend was reliving terrifiying memories, Marco Bodt had suggested they stop asking questions. But before Armin could voice his agreement, Eren quickly reassured everyone that it wasn't like that, and he went on to further explain everything that had happened and how he was going to eradicate the titans.

　　When Armin saw Sonja shift uncomfortably in her seat and stiffen up beside him at something Eren had mentioned, that is when he finally decided to speak up, unable to bear the sadness practically wafting off of Sonja any longer.

　　However, before Armin could open his mouth in hopes of putting an end to the discussion all together, he suddenly heard Sonja's voice from beside him. She so quiet that he could barely even hear her over everyone else. But he had. Of course, he had. His attention had been only on her.

　　“Excuse me,” were the only words Sonja could muster up in that moment, as she quickly stood from the table and grabbed her tray of barely touched food.

　　Sonja wasn't hungry anymore. At least, not since her classmates had started asking Eren questions about that haunting day she could never seem to get out of her mind. Her stomach was in knots and the entire room felt hot and crowded. She felt like she was going to be sick. So she left without sparing anyone a single glance or another word.

　　When she stepped outside, taking a moment to breath in some fresh air, Sonja finally realized that her eyes were burning. She quickened her pace to reach the barracks before the girl, Sasha Braus, who was still outside running her laps, could notice the state that she was in.

　　Sonja hastily opened up the door to the girls' barracks and walked inside, completely unaware that when she let the door close behind her, she did so in the face of Armin Arlert, who had quietly followed her outside to make sure that she was alright.

　　She crossed the room in long strides and climbed onto the top bunk that she had claimed as her own earlier, her bunkmate, Annie Leonhart, rather insistant about having the bottom. She turned so she was facing the wall and pulled the blanket up to her nose. And she laid there for the rest of the night, silent tears spilling down her cheeks as images from that day flashed behind her tightly shut eyelids.

　　She saw everything as if she was reliving it all over again.

　　The Colossal Titan peeking over the wall. The clouds of dirt when the gate had been breached. Pieces of the gate soaring through the air, raining down on their homes. The titans that had flooded inside. All the blood. Their faces. She could suddenly hear their terrified screams and cries, loudly echoing in her ears, and she reached up to cover them with her hands, as though it would help block them out.

　　Eventually, the boy standing outside the barracks turned around and left, sadly trudging back towards the mess hall to be with his friends. And it wasn't much later that Sonja had cried herself to sleep, finding herself trapped in yet another nightmare.

authors note. ━━ ughhhh Sonja and Armin are just so cute already that I could literally cry 🥺 I can't wait to develop their friendship into something more. Most of all, I can't wait to share all the fun (and painful) things that I have planned for this story with you all.

anyways, I really hope you all enjoyed the first chapter and are as excited as me for more! Thank you so much for giving this story a chance, it means the absolute world to me ❤️

[coolcattime]

A brief overview of the main characters for my Mianite Fae Court Yuri AU:

Martha - A half-fae with particularly strong powers from her fae side. She works as a healer and by making protective charms against curses and other unpleasant magics, though also tends to become a liaison when someone in her town has upset a fae. Hence, she is the one that people go to when there becomes clear discontent within the fae affecting the natural life even within the town.

She heads out into the woods intending to merely get answers but finds herself mixed within a brewing war between the fae courts.

Lady Ianite - Fae queen of the court closest to Martha’s town. She is currently threatening the courts of her brothers with war as she believes one of them has stolen her greatest treasure.

She immediately sees Martha as a curiosity that she wants to tempt into a deal that will force her to remain in her court. However, she realises her status as an outsider will allow her to freely move between all three courts and tasks her to which of her brothers have stolen her treasure in exchange for Ianite ensuring the possible war doesn’t destroy her town.

‘Lady’ Furia - A “fire fae with delusions of grandeur” - at least that’s how her former fae king describes her. She was exiled from the court of Lord Dianite for an attempt on the life of the Prince, who she believes is unworthy of his title due to him “barely being a fae” in her eyes.

After her exile, she found the clearing of the shadows and founded her own “court”. She has since been attempting to build up enough power to overthrow the current courts and begin her own rule.

Sonja - A trickster fae who, while still technically a part of Lord Mianite’s court, has been successfully lured over to the side of the Furia and the Shadows. She had been frequenting the clearing before Furia’s exile, seeing the shadows as something to study as their nature seemed closer to her own than any of the fae in Mianite’s court.

Furia preyed on her loneliness in order to convince her of their own kinship, further convincing her that if anyone in Mianite’s court found out about her interacting with the Shadows, she would surely be exiled just as she had been.

Sonja now works as a double agent, sewing ideas that will lead to war within the courts. Though the appearance of Martha throws both a wrench in Sonja’s attempts to sew discourse and her loyalty to Furia when this stranger shows interest in and kindness to her.

Capsize - A sea storm given fae form, Capsize is the stolen treasure Ianite is threatening war over. She’s been bound in iron and is currently being held prisoner by Furia who both sees her as a great way to start a war and the greatest prize she as a fire fae can possess.

Capsize was originally captured during a meeting between the three courts. She had left to be alone when Sonja greeted her and asked if Ianite had been ignoring her. Despite Capsize’s protests, Sonja did manage to read enough of her jealousy towards Jordan - a new fae in Ianite’s court - to lure her to the shadow clearing. Capsize was knocked out and locked in an iron collar to both prevent her escape and from doing damage to Furia.

While she is extremely resistant and plotting to kill her captors if given any opportunity, Furia is attempting to convince her that Ianite doesn’t truly care for her. As the false fae queen knows if she can get the water fae on side, defeating Dianite would be done in the blink of an eye.

[withinthebrain]

Speechless

Clara and Sonja had been eyeing him all evening, during the many rounds of card games. But then, as the night quieted and everyone else had gone home, it was just the three of them hunkered down for a movie.

As he lounged on the couch, they approached with a mischievous sparkle in their eyes. Clara leaned in first, her fingers running through his hair, while Sonja sat beside him and placed a kiss on his cheek.

"Is this what you've been waiting for?" Sonja asked, her eyes smoldering. She knew well the fantasies that had flickered through his mind.

Lacking words was new for him, but in that instance, he was without an answer.

Sonja's hand brushed lightly against his thigh, her touch electric as she leaned in closer. "You're in control," she teased. "Tell us what to do."

He was actually annoyed by her words. It might have been his fantasy, but all he could do was watch the two of them. He took a deep breath, his mind racing. Clara watched him eagerly; she shifted forward, waiting for his response.

"I don't want to be in charge," he confessed. He glanced between Sonja and Clara, his heart pounding in his ears and pulsing in the growing bulge in his pants.

Clara took that as an invitation. "Let's take care of you," she whispered, her lips brushing against his ear as she pulled his shirt over his head. Sonja's hands pressed against the warmth of his body and her fingertips danced along his waistband.

Sonja knelt before him, her fingers undoing his belt and pulling down his pants. Clara moved closer, her hands sliding over his thighs, teasing close to his growing member. Sonja and Clara shared a sly smirk as Clara helped him step out of his pants.

"I think we've found something," Sonja purred, her fingers hooking into the waistband of his boxers and pulling them down. His erection sprang free and his hands balled into fists at his sides.

Clara's hand trailed up his thigh, her touch a light, teasing, tickle. Sonja leaned in and kissed the base of his shaft, her tongue flicking out to taste him. He groaned softly, lacing his fingers through her hair.

Taking turns, Clara and Sonja teased him, kissing and licking up and down his length. His head fell back against the couch, his breath hitching with each touch. Clara took him in her mouth first, sucking gently while Sonja kissed and nibbled at his neck.

Sonja swapped places with Clara, her mouth hot and wet as she took all of him. Clara moved so she was cheek to cheek with Sonja. On either side of his shaft, their tongues slid sloppily up to his tip. Clara circled her tongue around his cock while Sonja moved her attention to his balls. She slowly licked his balls, sucking them delicately into her mouth.

He moaned, his hips lifting involuntarily to meet their mouths. Sonja's calm, blue eyes locked on his. With a wicked grin, she rejoined Clara, both of them taking him into their mouth and then relinquishing him to the other.

As they continued, alternating between teasing kisses and deep, passionate sucks, his body shivered in response. Clara whispered encouragement as he drove himself into Sonja's mouth.

He reached his peak, his body tense and shaking. With a moan, he came deep in Sonja's mouth. Enjoying herself, Sonja continued to move her lips over his sensitive tip until he shuddered and pulled away. Breathing heavily, he sank back against the cushions.

Sonja and Clara shifted to clean up. Clara tossed his boxers at him before snuggling close to him. Sonja nuzzled into his neck. She kissed him and reached for the remote to start the movie.

[ncisfranchise-source]

“We’re geeks about NCIS,” Michael Weatherly says while he and Cote de Pablo discuss their upcoming new series, a spinoff about their characters, Tony and Ziva, and their new rewatch podcast. And that’s evident in their tones and answers. These two people love this franchise, love their characters, and love working together.

On the Off Duty: An NCIS Rewatch video podcast for Spotify, the two are going through Season 3 episodes—they’ve done 25 and have a multi-year contract—and, through their work with Paramount+ (the home of their new show, NCIS: Tony & Ziva), CBS, and Spotify, it’s an “organic way of looking back and then looking forward for the new show,” Weatherly tells TV Insider.

“More than anything, it’s just Michael and I, two friends, talking about a really fantastic experience, one that came with its own set of challenges, but really at the end of the day, it’s a celebration of a very successful franchise where Michael and I became great friends and now we get the great big pleasure of actually going out to Budapest, working together again on Tony & Ziva,” shares de Pablo. “We thought it would be a great thing to be able to do this as a way to sort of engage the fandom before we started working on our show. Little did we know that everything would align in such a perfect way that this happened and then the show happened simultaneously.”

The two are now gearing up to begin work on the spinoff—filming begins in July, as they’ve said on the podcast—and Weatherly notes that other than his appearance in NCIS‘ tribute episode to the late David McCallum and Ducky (Tony joined Brian Dietzen‘s Dr. Jimmy Palmer in autopsy for the final scene), he hasn’t worked in over two years. (Weatherly starred in Bull after his Season 13 departure from NCIS.) De Pablo last played Ziva in a Season 17 arc after the end of the Season 16 finale revealed she’s alive.

“Michael and I talked about my return in 2019, and I remember calling because we already had the idea of Tony and Ziva and [playing these characters again],” de Pablo shares. “And I said, ‘Do you think this would get in the way?’ And he said, ‘No, this would not get in the way.’ And so in a way, I got a green light from him.”

Their plans to reprise their roles together also came into play with the tribute episode for McCallum, which Weatherly says he “was very honored to do and proud to do as somebody who was there with David when we were doing the JAG spinoff episodes.”

Sonja Flemming / CBS

“He said, ‘I really want to go back.’ And I said, ‘Well, if you go back, I’m not going to go back because we can’t both be back because then it gets in the way of the spinoff,'” de Pablo recalls. “So I said, ‘I know that you had a very special relationship with McCallum, and I think if you really want to do it, you should go, which means I have to sit this one out.’ So we’ve worked from the get-go for many years as a partnership, which means at times we have to confide in each other and sort of ask permission to do things in order to allow the other one to sit down or for things not to get in the way of the final objective, which is really to make this show and to give the audience the element of surprise on that show.” (Showcasing their partnership? Weatherly’s response: “I agree with everything she said.”)

Now that they’ll be playing Tony and Ziva again, de Pablo says she and Weatherly have talked a lot about the question of, “‘How do you think it’s going to be?’ I think we have to allow it to be what it’s going to be, and we don’t know what that is.” That’s the surprise for both of them. “We know that we have a past. We know that we have worked together. We know that we are friends, we know that we have gone through really good times, really challenging times in the show, as friends, in life, and now we’re going to be working together and hopefully we’re going to be drawing from all of that,” she continues. “And we have to understand these characters, much like Michael and Cote, have evolved.”

Adds Weatherly, “And what kind of an actor are you? What is Cote de Pablo going to feel like when she puts on the clothes and starts doing a scene with her daughter?” He knows that everyone behind the scenes will be supporting them, “but I have no idea what Tony DiNozzo is like until I get on set and I’m in that costume and I look across at my scene partner and they say action. I’m looking forward to that, the real energy and exhilaration of acting with one of the best actors I’ve ever worked with, Cote de Pablo.”

He notes that while the two of them are different, what they have in common is “we want the scene to be great and we will make sacrifices, at some cost, sometimes,” and de Pablo interjects with, “by the way, we do not agree about the final outcome of what that should be and that ends up in the scene.”

Cliff Lipson/CBS

Weatherly picks right up with, “that becomes the conflict of the scene. I think Tony and Ziva have a similar new fact pattern that has emerged in the show. Tony and Ziva should really be called Tony & Ziva & Tali because their priority now, both of them, is Tali, not themselves or each other—of course, couples get into their petty business, but I think the dynamic that emerges is going to be a really brand new one. And I have no idea what that’s going to feel like. I can’t wait.”

De Pablo is also enjoying that she and Weatherly are executive producers on Tony & Ziva. “We are a part of making decisions. It doesn’t mean that we make the decisions or the final decision, but we are a part of this collaborative effort that goes into making a show. And that’s been a real surprise and kind of fun to be a part of,” she explains. “It’s also made me respect actors and all the people that are making this thing happen. We’re getting, for example, a taste of castings and these actors, are very good and it’s very hard to choose and sometimes there are things that have nothing to do with the performance.”

They can’t share much yet about the new show, but de Pablo does reveal that Tali, Tony and Ziva’s daughter, will be played by a European actress. And Weatherly thinks that for anyone who comes int other new show without having watched NCIS first, “you’re going to think, ‘Wow, this is like Mission Impossible with a couple.'”

And it’s expanding the NCIS franchise, both to Paramount+ from CBS and globally, which was important to the pair. “This show, for many years, was a very sort of American show. That’s how people viewed it. When we started traveling, we realized that this show was not just an American show. It appealed to a massive international market. So what we’re doing now and what we always planned to doing was putting the show outside of the US to tap into that international world and give it that thing that we always wanted, the je ne sais quoi,” says de Pablo.

For them, it’s about answering questions the fans have, like “What happened to these characters and where are they now and who are they now and where are they living and all that,” she continues, promising, “We’re going to answer a lot of those questions.” This show is also allowing the two do something they love (travel), though both are, as Weatherly puts it, “a couple of homebodies at heart.”

While we wait for Tony & Ziva to premiere, there is still the aforementioned podcast—and just like the audience is learning new facts about NCIS, the hosts are learning more about each other. The podcast has given Weatherly “a deepening of the love and respect that I have always had for Cote,” while de Pablo admits, with a laugh, that she finds herself “a little offended” if she hears a story she didn’t know before.

Something that both of them know and listeners will have to wait to discover? The last special guest, which they want to leave as a surprise. But in addition to the already announced Sean Murray, Dietzen, Eric Christian Olsen, Daniela Ruah, and Jon Cryer (Sasha Alexander and Rudolf Martin have appeared in episodes already released), also stopping by are Robert Wagner, Joe Spano, and Rocky Carroll.

Also coming up: more fun with the segments of the podcast, which include a context section about the world the day episodes aired, fan Qs, and Gibbs’ rule of the day. “Cote and I were happy if you just put a microphone in front of us and we talked about the show for 25 hours, we could do it, but getting at that structure allows a little bit of give and take,” says Weatherly. “It brings the audience in with the fan questions and it sort of challenges us again, to not just sit in a puddle of our memories.”

De Pablo shares that they do continue to have fun with Gibbs’ rules. “For example, we’ll be like, ‘Trust no one, what do you think about that?’ And then we get into a whole sort of existential analysis of what trusting means and have you ever lost trust in someone? And so everything’s just sort of like a gateway to a bigger question,” she says. “That’s what Michael and I really always wanted from the get-go. We, of course, love the show and it’s a celebration of the show, but we also wanted to reserve the right to be able to go from one branch to another very organically and explore different subjects that are really interesting to us in a very sort of fluid friendship way, like, ‘Hey, what do you think about this?'”

[writingsofwesteros]

Sonja sitting at The garden smiling as she collects flowers The Kids bring to her. Binding a book of them.

"what are you upto My lady?" Gwayne asks intrigued. Sonja startles but smiles when she realizes it is him.

"must you always surprise me so,ser?" She asks. He tries to stutter an answer but she smiles "I am merely jesting" she soothes.

He blushes, terribly embarrassed of losing his usually quick wit once more.

"I am drying The flowers for the children. Once the pages dry, I can write to them information of the type of flower it is." She explains.

"how on earth did you end up here?" He asks in awe.

"I-i thought It was a nice spot" she says confused. Gwayne only shakes his head.

"I meant how a sweet Fairy like you could ever come to the Capitol"

Gwayne flirting !! I can't deal!!!

Just want to take him in thank you !!

[tomfoolies]

begin again

ship: corporate affairs words: 722 a/n: finally, here's the tomja s4 finale fic that i promised!! i actually wrote most of this all the way back in june when i finished my first rewatch, so it's about time i posted it <3 definitely more stream of consciousness kinda writing than what i usually do, but i had fun with it and i hope you like it too :3

--

Tom did it. The impossible, the unachievable. Something he once thought he’d never want to do, let alone be capable of doing.

Once again he was at a crossroads, two distinct lifes ahead of him. A lot of those happened in these past few years, he muses. Constant choice-making, choosing sides, chasing coattails and proclaiming his usefulness to anyone willing to take him on. But the hunt has grown stale, apprehensive, even terrifying in certain moments. 

He looked around the place, one pretentious establishments amongst the others, recalled the time he sat across Kendall, in a situation all too similar; being wooed for his loyalty that seems to have always felt easy for others to win, because he should’ve felt lucky that he was even being wanted in the first place. He looked at Mattson, the man who had now revealed his plans to him after what he thought was just something for entertainment, for evaluation. In his mind, Logan’s dead body on the airplane floor, a divination of things to come if he decided to walk down that path. I grind because I worry – it’s the truth, and it would’ve been the death of him. 

On the surface, his fears, his makeshift predictions. And at the heart of it all, her. 

“You know Sonja would respect you much more if you decided to help me out…” The memory of Kendall’s words resurface, the way he flashed the information like valuable cards in the intensely complex game they’ve played for years now without ever really knowing the rules. “Because she already did just that. Didn't she tell you? I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for her.”

He hadn’t given Kendall the satisfaction of being surprised. Of feeling some sort of betrayal. Of thinking about it, even if only for the briefest of moments. But he knew he’d get fucked, Sonja knew he’d get fucked. It wasn’t a viable choice. 

Sonja waits for him at their apartment, but anticipation and trepidation greet him first when he unlocks the door. Only after that comes her, in her anxious stance with her arms crossed, her shuffling walk. She'd turned in her resignation just a few days ago, waiting for this moment and its consequences with baited breath. The dogs feel the tension too, gingerly pad over to smell their dad to see if he’s changed. If he’s still the same Tom from before. 

Watching her now, with a dizzying sense of freedom in his chest he doesn’t ever remember feeling, he knows that today’s choice wasn’t one to begin with. Ironically, when it’s exactly what she taught him; the knowledge that he always has an opportunity to choose differently. But maybe with it, also the ability to know when there is only one road to take. 

She doesn’t have to ask. He gives her his answers with honesty that still humiliates him sometimes. 

“He wanted me to step up, take on the mantle. But I said no,” he says, and watches her face change. From confusion to clarity. “I'm done.”

Just like the first time, their beginning that feels so long ago that they must've lived lifetimes since. When he came to find her after a fight that left him reeling and relieved and with the taste of deliverance, telling her he’d ended things with Shiv. Sonja had been waiting for him, the tension between them had come to a standstill and had to be resolved. They’d both felt it, and everything around them conspired to make their collision happen. That time it ended with her body against his, as fast and as fervently as possible with the realization that there is something between them that can’t be quelled. 

Perhaps later tonight they will do that, too. But now her arms wrap around him and she sighs her relief into his collarbone and he buries his face in her hair. Caught in a moment where it’s just the two of them, the rest of the world gone somewhere else at last. 

She pulls back to look at him, almost like seeing him in a new light, cradling his face in her hands and then she’s pulling him under and he takes to it gladly, their foreheads touching. 

Something unknown yet great is right at his fingertips. He decides to grasp it with both hands.

[savage-rhi]

For the WIP meme, if you haven't answered it yet, I'd love to hear more about The Sacrifice. Please and thank you.

@likesugarandcyanide Sure thing hon!! Thank you for asking! Here's some information and where you can read it:

The Sacrifice is a Karl Heisenberg fanfic. It takes places decades before the events of RE8, with Karl in his younger years and eventually it'll tie into the main RE8 story.

Karl has both his magnetic powers and the ability to transform into a werewolf like beast; which gives him more control over the Lycans.

Miranda has Karl working on a personal project, one that could potentially tip the scales in terms of power between the lords and Miranda herself.

Karl has a close relationship with Moreau, which becomes strained over time as he becomes involved with Sonja Ainsley.

Karl saves Sonja from a Lycan attack after the creatures got out of his holding area. He nurses her back to health without Miranda or the other lords knowing, and at first things between them are intense, but they both grow on one another. She's from another town, and Karl grows more curious about the outside world because of her.

After Sonja returns to her town, Karl begins to sneak away from the village to spend more time with her. He begins to form attachments to her family and falls for Sonja.

I plan on having two endings to this story.

I started writing this around the time I was homeless, and after I got established at my current residence, I hit a block. Looking at the full picture, its because I associated the story with a terrible and stressful time in my life which is why it's been on a long hiatus.

I'm planning to work on it again this summer since I'll be taking off a term from college, and hopefully will finish it up if I have the spoons!